I'm REALLY sorry for taking so long to update this fic! I can't believe it was 4 weeks, but I've been really busy with the semester starting and homework. I promise to update quicker in the future; I hope you won't hold the delay against me!

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Chapter 11: Freeing

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In the end, the Doctor slowly began to triumph, so in a moment when the Master had been thrown aside in the Doctor's rage, he picked up his laser screwdriver in the flash of an eye, pointed it him, and flicked it on. The beam of red light shot out and hit his abdomen; the Doctor doubled over in pain. There were cries and shouts from Donna, Jamie, and Jenny. The Master, seeing his one and only opportunity, dashed to a back door that had been hidden from view, opened it, and disappeared into the night.

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"Where'd he go?"

"Doctor, go after him!"

"Don't let him get away!"

The cacophony of voices started up the very second the Master left the cabin; the Doctor tried to get them to lower their voices, and succeeded, but only after a few moments. As soon as Donna, Jamie, and Jenny had quited, the Doctor went over to them and began untying their bindings.

"Doctor, are you okay?" Donna asked.

"Dad?"

The Doctor nodded; there was some aching where the laser had shot him, but with his superior Time Lord intellect, he knew he would be fine. "Yeah, I'm okay," he replied. He untied the last of the bindings, then walked over to Jenny and swept her up into a bear hug. "I never thought I'd see you again!"

"Neither did I," Jenny said, hugging the Doctor just a fiercely.

"When I saw you lying there, I just thought…" he trailed off, voice nearly breaking.

"But I didn't, and that's the important thing, isn't it?"

"So very true!" said the Doctor. "I'm just glad I've finally got you back." He grinned, and Jenny, breaking apart from the hug, looked up into his eyes and grinned back just as happily.

"Yeah, enough with the family reunion," said Donna. "I mean, I know you two are glad to have each other again, but don't we have other things to deal with right now?"

"Quite right!" said the Doctor. He thought for a moment.

"Why do you suppose the Master's goons didn't come in and help their boss?" Donna asked.

"Hm?" said the Doctor. "Oh, well, I suppose it's because they figured the cries and shouts inside would be happening because they thought we were being tortured. And I also suppose that they're not here now, trying to grab at us again, because they saw the Master run out of here."

"So they followed him, not being very bright, wanting to know what's wrong?" Jenny asked.

"Correctamundo, daughter of mine," said the Doctor cheerily. "I promised myself I'd stop using that word. Correctamundo, I mean. Not daughter."

"Right," said Jenny suspiciously. She then grinned to show that she was kidding; the Doctor smiled back.

"Doctor, shouldn't we be going after the Master?" Jamie said suddenly.

The Doctor ran his fingers through his hair. "Not much use in that. Knowing him, he had some way to escape the Grove if things went wrong; he'd be far away by now."

"Can we check, to be sure?" Donna asked. "I mean, for all we know, he could be hiding behind a tree, waiting to jump out from behind one to recapture us."

Shaking he head, the Doctor replied, "He won't be." But Donna continued to stare at him, so he sighed and added, "Oh very well, if it'll satisfy you."

"Thank you, it will."

The Doctor rolled his eyes and grinned only slightly. He pulled his sonic screwdriver out from one of his pockets and was on the point of flicking it on, but stopped.

"Doctor?" said Donna. "What's wrong?"

"I'm wondering why you didn't think to do this. You have your sonic lipstick, you know."

"No need to get snarky on me, space man," said Donna, eyes narrowing. "I've been a Time Lady for two months, you've been a Time Lord for over nine hundred years. I haven't had as much time to gain all the common sense and wisdom of a great and mighty lord of time such as yourself; if I did have as much common sense and wisdom as you, I would have used my sonic lipstick. And don't say anything about me being a temp, either; yes, I was the best temp in Chiswick, but I wasn't, and I'm still not, you."

The Doctor stared at her warily. "You finished?"

"Yes," said Donna. She flipped her hair to one side and crossed her arms.

Still looking at Donna, the Doctor said, "Right. Well, then. I'll just get on with this."

"Oh, I wasn't being entirely serious, time boy," said Donna. "So relax and get on with it."

"I was." And the Doctor flicked his sonic screwdriver on; it lit up and made the same buzzing sound as usual, but other than that, nothing happened. He frowned.

"What does that mean?" Jamie asked

"It means that the Master is far, far away someplace," the Doctor replied. "Oh, he's smart, all right. Knew that he had to get away from me fast enough to a place far enough so I won't be able to get at him."

"You can just use the TARDIS," Jenny suggested.

Regretfully, the Doctor shook his head. "I can't. The Master has done something with his genetic tracing; I don't know what, but whatever he did to it makes him inaccessible."

"So for all we know, he could be standing right next to us and we wouldn't know it."

"Not necessarily, Donna," the Doctor replied. "Remember, I just said that, according to my old girl here," he patted the screwdriver, "that the Master is someplace far away and untraceable. I'm guessing he ran because he knew I would imprison him on the TARDIS."

"Wonderful," said Jamie.

"Isn't it?" Donna replied sarcastically.

"Now, you two, behave," said the Doctor warningly. To himself, almost, he said, "Why? Why does he keep running, when he knows I'll eventually catch up to him? Of course, since I'm very clever, I should be able to answer that myself."

"So what's the answer, then?" Donna asked.

"I don't know," the Doctor replied, running his fingers through his hair. "If I could only find out where he is, I'd be able to get to him; since I don't know where he is, I can't."

"But you'll search for him, won't you?" Jenny asked, staring at the Doctor, eyes wide.

"Oh yes," said the Doctor. "But that will have to wait for the time being. Right now, everyone is still under the Master's control I need to break the hypnosis."

As much as he hated doing it, the Doctor put the Master aside in his mind for the time being, and walked over to the cabin's door. He pulled it open and was as surprised as everyone else in the cabin at the tiniest morning; the sun had only peeked over the tree-covered hills a fraction of a centimeter, but the effect this had was to brighten the sky ever so slightly, so that instead of a deep navy blue of night, the starry sky was now only a navy blue color, touched ever so slightly by a golden glow. The light peered through the trees surrounding the cabin and lit up the ground so that it was now only slightly visible in the trees' shadows. As the Doctor stepped over the threshold and outside, his eyes were lifted toward the sky, a thoughtful expression in their gaze.

"We must have been in there longer than I thought," the Doctor said as Donna, Jenny, and Jamie filed out of the cabin behind him.

"Where are the guards?" Jenny asked, looking around.

Suddenly, everyone noticed what Jenny had: that the guards, who had been there when the group had entered the cabin, were now gone; only footprints in the dirt remained.

"I suppose they must have run off when they saw the Master escaping," said Donna. She looked at the Doctor for confirmation.

"I think you're right," the Doctor agreed. "They must have thought he had finished with us. Then, not seeing much point in standing around for nothing, they went away." He took a deep breath. "Well, it's lucky for us; at least we don't have to deal with them."

"True, that," quipped Jamie.

Donna, Jamie, Jenny, and the Doctor all walked away from the cabin. As they made their way through the forested area, the Doctor told everyone his plan for curing the "campers," for want of a better word, of their hypnosis; or what the Doctor called, "breaking the spell." His plan, as he said it, was to go to the TARDIS and, from a room containing scraps and heaps of junk from centuries gone by, compose a large satellite-like device to which he could attach his sonic screwdriver and Donna's sonic lipstick. The reason for two sonic device, the Doctor explained to the group, was for maximum impact, but not only for the "campers." For all he knew, there could be people all over Sonoma County who the Master had bent to his will.

The double-impact of the sonic devices would spread out over the satellite-device, and from there, begin transmitting like radio or television waves. Or, as the Doctor preferred, like the telephone waves that had helped him find the earth in the Medusa Cascade, where Davros and the Daleks had hidden it. As they walked toward the TARDIS, they passed by some of the outlying cabins in the Grove. Snoring could be heard from one or two of them, so Donna, the Doctor, Jenny, and Jamie took care to tread quietly as they went by, so as to not wake anyone up.

Crack.

Everyone whipped around as the sound of a twig snapping rent the air.

"Sorry," Donna said sheepishly.

"It's ok," said the Doctor. "Just…try to be more careful where you walk."

"I will."

They reached the TARDIS without further incident, and as soon as they were inside, the Doctor set about making the satellite device. It did not take as long as he expected; once he was finished, he had Donna and Jamie help him to drag it outside, where he set it up on a stand, with the dish of the satellite pointing toward the sky.

"How are you going to attached the lipstick and screwdriver to the satellite? Are you just going to point them at it?" Donna asked.

"No," the Doctor replied. "You remember what happened last time I pointed both of them at something. Well, they were pointed at each other, but it's the same idea." Catching the look on Donna's and Jenny's faces he added, "It is."

"Just do whatever you've got to do, space man."

The Doctor grinned broadly at her, head tilted, and winked. "Sonic device," he said, holding out his hand. Donna obliged, and as soon as the Doctor had it in his grasp, he went around the satellite dish to a place that had room enough, then got down on all fours. Both sonic devices were clasped within his teeth, and as the Doctor crawled underneath the dish toward the middle, where there was a slight hole, just big enough for the tips of the sonic screwdriver and lipstick. One he reached the destination, the Doctor laid down on his back and scooted five inches more so that he was in place, and placed the sonic devices up to the hole; the tips of them fit perfectly.

"You okay down there, Doctor?" Donna said, voiced raised so the Doctor could hear her.

"Yep," the Doctor replied. And then he turned the sonic devices on.

For a fraction of a second, nothing happened. Then there was a bang, a brilliant flash, and those not under the satellite could see what was happening: little rings of light, each the size of the satellite dish, were coming from it, each growing larger and larger the farther they went. About one or two hundred feet in the air, the rings looked as though they exploded, only no sound came forth, and light was shot in every direction imaginable. As the rings of light dissipated in the air, spreading everywhere, Jamie felt something lift from his mind and his head, somehow, became lighter in weight than before.

"Oi!"

"What is it?" Jenny asked.

"The Master just lost control of my mind," said Jamie.

"And that's a bad thing?" Donna asked.

"Not bad," said Jamie. "Just startled me a wee bit."

Donna, Jenny, and Jamie watched as rings of light left the satellite, to dissipate in the air not long after. After things began to die down and the light rings stopped, sounds in the distance of the campers could be heard.

"D'you think we woke them up?" Jamie asked guiltily.

"Sounds like it," Donna replied. "What did it feel like when the Master wasn't controlling you anymore?"

"A wee bit like a weight was lifted from me," Jamie admitted. "Was rather strong, too; startled me, like I said."

"Then it's probably why everyone else here was woken up from their sleep," said Jenny.

"Yeah," said Donna. There was a pause.

"Why isn't Dad coming back to us?" Jenny asked suddenly.

"Good question," Donna replied. She shouted, "OI, SPACE MAN! Stop daydreaming and get out from under there!!"

No reply.

Jamie bent down to get a look at the underside of the satellite dish. In the middle, he saw the Doctor, laying on his back, arms spread out at his sides; Jamie could see the sonic screwdriver and lipstick on the ground beside the Doctor, looking as though they had fallen, or been dropped.

"Doctor!" Jamie said to him. "Stop playin' around, will ya?" No response.

"What's wrong?" Jenny asked. She and Donna had knelt down as well. When she saw the Doctor, her breath caught. "Dad!"

"Don't worry, he's not dead," said Jamie, forestalling any panic. "He's alive, breathing; I can see his chest moving up and down."

"You've got good eyesight, mate," Donna said.

"He's probably just unconscious; I'm betting it happened because of the sonic devices," said Jamie, ignoring Donna. He got on hands and knees and began crawling underneath the satellite.

"What are you doing?" Donna asked.

"Someone's got to get him out from under this," came the reply.

Jamie reached the Doctor and, after placing the sonic devices in his pocket, dragged him out from under the dish without much difficulty. As soon as Jamie had the Doctor free, Donna bent down and put her ear to the Doctor's chest.

"One of his hearts has stopped," she said. "Hold on."

Donna gave him CPR, and after two tries, successfully managed to revive the Doctor. His eyes fluttered open, and the first thing out of his mouth was: "What are you all standing around me for?" When the Doctor heard the collective sigh of relief, he asked as his gaze swept his companions, "What was that for?" He pushed himself up into something of a sitting position, with his arms supporting him and crossed his legs; he looked as though he was relaxing in a lounge chair.

"You were unconscious," said Donna. "You big dumbo."

"Sorry," said the Doctor apologetically.

"What happened under there?" Jenny asked.

"Ah, well now, that's an interesting story," said the Doctor. He hopped up onto his feet and, as he talked, began disassembling the satellite dish. "When I turned the sonic screwdriver and lipstick on, there was a backlash of sonic waves; because the devices were so close together, but not pointed at each other. So, when I turned them both on, the sonic waves reverberated all around the dish and into the air. While the waves spread and snapped everyone out of their hypnoses, there was the backlash that hit me and knocked me unconscious."

By now, the Doctor had finished putting everything inside the TARDIS. Once finished, he, Donna, Jenny, and Jamie crossed over the threshold into the console room; Jenny was excited to be inside, and was very curious as to how everything worked. The Doctor promised to show her, but at a time when they didn't have anything going on, any enemies to defeat, and certain activities like that. So the Doctor, with Donna's help, piloted the TARDIS to the middle of the camp; they decided to take it forward in time, and when they landed, it was to find the sun at a point in the sky, suggesting that it was only nine in the morning.

"Yup, nine in the morning," Jamie confirmed, looking at his watch.

"Right," said the Doctor, giving Jamie a strange look; no one had spoken before him regarding the time of day.

"Anyway…"

"Yes, anyway," said the Doctor quickly. He placed his hands inside his pockets and turned to face the group. "What I would suggest doing is mingling for a while among these oh so lovely campers. And what I mean by that is, make absolutely sure they are free of the Master's control. I don't want any dawdling; Rassilon knows I've had enough of that from previous companions. Anyway, once you're done, come straight back to the TARDIS, you hear?"

"Yes, Doctor," said Donna and Jamie.

"Jenny?" The Doctor looked at her sternly.

"I'm not going to run off," she complained, then added, "Yes, Dad."

"Good. Now, get to it!"

They obliged; however, they did not need to examine every single person, for it was soon clear that everyone was indeed free from the hypnosis. So, in light of that, Donna, Jenny, and Jamie went back inside the TARDIS; the Doctor followed behind, characteristically trying to avoid people's praise. As soon as he made sure sure everyone was in tip top shape, walked up to the console and took the TARDIS into the vortex.

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I'll be posting the first chapter of the sequel, Imbalance in Time, sometime this weekend, so be sure to check back!

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